Fangs for the Memory

Forrest J. Ackerman, sage of Famous Monsters of Filmland
magazine, ur-movie fan and coiner of the term sci-fi, still gives tours of his
memorabilia collection every Saturday morning. Moved from its longtime, multiroom
opulence in the Los Feliz Hills to a side street in the flats off Hillhurst, the
Ackermansion includes everything thats eventually going to be preserved
at duodecahedrillionaire Paul Allens $22-million Science Fiction
Museum/Experience Music Project at the foot of Seattles Space Needle. Theres
an entire room devoted to Fritz Langs 1927 film Metropolis ; the
golden idol from Raiders of the Lost Ark ; personally autographed
H.P. Lovecraft books and Stephen Kings first short story (a framed, typewritten
page placed over the mantelpiece). Ackerman, who once used to pal around with
Ray Bradbury and L. Ron Hubbard to talk about science-fiction writing, is a little
hard of hearing but no less enthusiastic or punny. (Those raised on his writing
in the 1970s and 1980s, before getting into the harder stuff of Fangoria ,
were hopelessly warped by this senseless humor.) Walk gently through these gates
of joy  you never know what youve got until it slips through your fingers and
flies away. 4511 Russell Ave. (at Hillhurst, on the N.W. corner, in
the first bungalow), Los Feliz, (323) MOON-FAN; (323) 666-6326, RSVP line.